


Aradia is Gay and Has A Thing for Fins (and Vriska)

by thescyfychannel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: I'll tag for them when they appear, Multi, aradia is super gay guys, karkat and sollux show up later, they're also dating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2018-12-03 20:42:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11540079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: Sssssso dating REALLY ILLEGAL SEADWELLERS and PIRATES can't be THAT bad of an idea, right? Right!





	1. The Café, or, how to fall in love in thirty minutes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [endeofblood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/endeofblood/gifts).



> For this, I'd love to see a hemoflip-esque AU. I have a few suggestions, but you can take them or leave them as you see fit--most importantly, though, I'm not basing it off any particular preexisting hemoflip AU, so go wild.
> 
> -Maroon and goldblood psionics (like Aradia) are part of a warrior-nobility class with the Vantases (Vanti?) as the rulers. How this affects society is up to you! Is it just as casteist regardless? Are the politically and psychically powerful psionics entirely loyal to their mutant rulers? ~The choice is yours~ because political intrigue is always a bonus.  
> -Feferi posing as a violetblood and possibly hiding out in a fishing village or something. Tyrians are believed to have died out ages ago. You can totally drop Eridan in here wherever, or not! Heck, you can make it an OT4 if you're feelin fancy.  
> -Vriska naturally also ends up at the low point of the spectrum here, but with her knowledge of ships and waves it's entirely likely she and Feferi end up in roughly the same coastal town. It'd be neat to see them in a mutually survival based alliance before Aradia shows up, but the nature of their relationship (pitch? pale? flush? a big mess of everything?) is up for grabs, and so is how it changes when the Mysterious highblood arrives.
> 
> Those are just some ideas!

Vacation Time! A completely foreign phrase to Aradia Megido, member of the psionic elite, the warrior-nobility class _mostly_ sworn to the Vantas Kings. _Vacation_ time—all right, she knew the textbook definition as well as the next garnetblood, but much like her best friend (and occasional boyfriend) Sollux Captor, she had a tendency towards overwork…

Which was probably why Karkat had all but kicked her out of the palace with a packed suitcase and a fare-thee-well. He might have made grumbling noises about doing the same to Sollux, but judging by the smug look on Sollux’s face, and the flustered expression on Karkat’s, _that_ probably wasn’t going to be happening any time soon.

Whiiiiich left you, Aradia Megido, here. Alone. Attempting to figure out what to do with your “time off” in a quaint little fishing village that Karkat had recommended. He’d _barely_ been outside the palace! _Apparently_ it had a few festivals around this time of sweep, and Karkat had given you the address of a “charming little pied-à-terre” that the palace apparently kept ready for just such occasions. Great.

 

* * *

 

 

Okay. Fine. You have to admit, it’s...kind of nice. Everything is brightly painted—to keep the salt in the air from weathering the wood, according to the guidebook one of Captor’s distracted-looking subordinates had pressed on you—and it gives the place a certain kind of...life. Your first day here, and you’re already intrigued. At least exploring gives you something to do, because apparently, the next festival isn’t for a day or two more. The guidebook does mention fairly frequent markets, though, and you decide to try visiting one. If you’re careful, as you tend to be, you can almost certainly avoid scaring the locals too much. The world is _your_ fishy-scented shell-creature.

On your way back from wandering, you bump into a rather disreputable-looking character—cerulean, you judge, by her eyes and bearing alone—but she scoffs at you rather than pick a fight. Odd, for a cerulean, but maybe this one had _some_ good sense— _ah_. Late to meet her date, and trying to avoid being later, judging by the way she’s sauntering over to a rather pretty pair of violets—

Wait. What? Pretty? What??

Haha. No. Nope, it’s just... _been_ a while, is all. No need for nor sense in flirting up a _violet_ , of all sorts. _Gods_.

 

Buuuuut there’s a little café right here, and _hey_ , it looks like the violets are setting up a stand for the upcoming market and you really _are_ on vacation so there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of _troll watching_ , right? At least, that’s what you tell yourself as you distractedly order half the menu and tip your waiter in gold. You’re instantly about twenty times more popular with the trolls there, many of whom had been eyeing you nervously. Too bad you’re too busy eavesdropping to notice.

Cobalt slings an arm around the smaller violet, and winks at the violet’s surly partner. “First one here, it seems? Well, Allera? What’ve you got for me today?” She speaks in a bit of a drawl—seagrift’s tongue, if there ever was one—and both violets look nothing but done with her shit. Definitely not a date, then. “Allera” hooks an ankle around one of the cobalt’s, and sweeps it upwards—boom, clap, the sound of her head hitting—ooh, that looked like a moobeast patty, and it has you cringing in sympathy. Sucks to suck, but at least it’s a dry one. No ruined hair!

“ _Bitch—_ ” the cobalt snarls from the ground, scrambling to her feet with a complete lack of grace. “Gods, Allera, you’re an asshole and a half when you’re pushing pitch.”

“When _I’m_ pushing pitch? Sure, Serket.” Her fins flick twice, and the tall seadweller, who’s got a head and a half on her, smirks at the cobalt.

“Nice try,” he says, snorting. “Told you my girl’s not much interested.” You mentally christen him “Lightning Horns”. In fact, they almost look like–

“Serket” turns a snarl on him, her “fury” making up for the scant two-inch difference between them. “No one _asked_ you, Ampora.”

Oh, _shit_.

 

For a moment, you wonder if Karkat might have had any ulterior motives in sending you here. If there were more secrets that you were meant to find. If the fact that a _descendant_ of _the_ notorious Orphaner Dualscar had appeared had _somehow_ already wound its way up to the palace.

And then Serket blows a raspberry at Ampora, and you have to hide a snort behind your stacks of pastry.


	2. The Market, or how to win (one of) them over with fine lace detailing

The little house is quite near to the seaside, with a lovely view of the ocean. Your room is quiet and tidy, decorated in the blues and greens and other hues of the ocean, in a way that feels...surprisingly soothing. You never really though that the ocean could be, well. Welcoming?  
Most of the other rooms are in use. Psionics on leave are much less common, but plenty of the trolls in residence here are on leave from their administrative positions in the palace, primarily greens and teals. A polite Jade runs the place, and he had give you your room chip and a brief tour, as well as a town map.

You'd waved off his offers to help carry up your luggage with a smile—polite of him, really, most likely his job, but psionics never needed a spare hand when they had all of their mind to work with.

 

So now you were settled in—once the night's dust was washed off, you sprawled out over the reclining platform and stared up at the ceiling. A vacation. IN a town with an Ampora, a gamblignant, and who knew what else.

Geez, if Karkat had  _wanted_ to run another mystery game for you, he could've just  _said_  so.

 

Cheered by the thought of your sovereign lord having a fit over the mayhem you usually caused in his orderly and well-organized games, you roll out of bed and get dressed.

 

* * *

 

 

Kanaya Maryam was the first word in fashion. She could have had just about any position in the palace she wanted, but she took on just about  _all_  of them. The girl never seemed to need any sort of sleep, and you could find her out in the palace gardens about as easily as you could in her sewing room.

The dress she'd made you for this particular excursion was absolutely perfect. Blacks and greys, burgundy lace as an accent, and cut, in your opinion,  _rather_  flatteringly. You're...really sure you don't want to know what she thinks you'll be doing on this trip.

...might be fun to get that seadweller's opinion of the dress, though.

No. Nope!! You're here to  _relax_ , not to get embroiled in dockside drama!

 

That much decided, you head out the door. If your feet just so happen to turn you back towards that stall (and that pretty pair of seadwellers) you'd noted earlier, well, these things just happen that way, from time to time.

Around you, the docks are coming to life. Stalls are being set up in earnest, now that night has full-fallen, and everyone in the town seems to be out and about. Definitely the start of a festival night, then, and a big one, at that. Decorations are just now going up in earnest, some made of that same material that seadwellers used in their chalks and paints. Seadweller bioluminescence was something of a fascination for a psionic like you, and the bioluminescent creatures that they used in their art materials were a subfield of the overarching study.

Perhaps that was  _another_  reason Karkat had sent you here. Not that he could blame you—seadwellers and psionics! It was kind of a whole  _thing_.

Speaking of seadwellers, most of them seemed to be giving you a wide berth. You couldn't exactly blame them, palace psionic practically rolled off of you, and while you weren't  _actually_  on duty, you had no doubts that most of the trolls here wouldn't want to run into anyone affiliated with the palace in any capacity.

Unless, of course, you were buying things. Better get on that.

 

A few polite conversations, and a heap full of random trinkets for gifts, and goodies and snacks that you'd alternated between eating and stashing for later, and the streets had warmed up to you considerably. Not to be  _intolerably_  smug, but you were pretty sure you were doing better than Sollux would have!

And as luck would have it, your course had brought you right back there. To the booth. With the pretty seadwellers, and the gamblignant...who was no longer there, okay, that might make things—not flirting things, which were DEFINITELY not happening—easier.

Allera's humming to herself as she arranges the merchandise, and Ampora's finishing up their decorations. You're guessing that's got a little something to do with his height, as opposed to any actual style, because he's checking in with Allera every few seconds, to get her opinion on whatever he's just done. She seems amused, reaching up to wipe a glowing smudge of paint off his cheek, in a way that makes him flush violet.

It's kind of cute.

 

"Excuse me!" Well, that certainly got their attention. Their eyes immediately snap to you, and you can  _tell_  what they sense—palace, psionic, garnetblood—based on the way their positions shift, the way their fins flatten out. You're pretty sure that they're not going to be the last seadwellers in this town to give you that reaction. Handmaid, they're  _certainly_  not the first. "When do you open? I have a friend who would absolutely  _love_  that woven net you have, or some of the rope—"

Ampora snorts, his fins flicking as he dismisses you as another highblood bit of fluff with more power than you actually know how to use. "Let me guess. They like to decorate or somesuch. Want it for an exotic accent piece."

His accent's even more wavy and wavery up close, and damn, he  _does_ know he's gorgeous. Allera knows it too, from the look she gives you—which, really, only serves to make it worse for  _you_  on  _both_  ends. "No idea. She does like decorating, but she's actually primarily a gardener and a clothier, she's always looking for unusual things for one or the other."

They look skeptical. You pull out the little shopping list your friends had given you and wave it; Ampora reaches out to pluck it out of your hand. "...huh. Yeah, I suppose I can see that. Fef's shit is good for hangin' plants, aye? An' you'd need good quality rope to help train shit to grow, yeah?"

You blink at him. "Fef"  _beams_. "So you  _were_  paying attention!"

He goes even more violet this time. "I mean, a'course, you were goin' out a your way to teach me—uh, anyway, miss, our shit's the best this side a the walls, if your friend's got an eye for quality."

"Trust me, she does." You tug at one end of your skirt, fanning it out to display the neat stitching and embroidery. "She made this, actually!"

Fef Allera frowns, and starts circling around you. Okay, you're a  _little_  nervous, but you can hold still for this! Besides, Ampora already looks on edge enough to attack, and you're not sure you'd want to see what he'd do if you  _did_  move. "Deeps take me. Did  _Kanaya Maryam_  make this?"

"...uhm. Yes?"

 

Allera nearly  _squeals,_ and scoops up a portion of your skirt. You're  _very_  happy you wore shorts under it, and even more so that she's staring at that instead of your blushing face. With Ampora, you are not so lucky: he's smirking at the rosy color in your cheeks. "Wow, this is amazing! Her craftsmanship is as good as ebber—Eridan, come here, you have to see this—"

Eridan Ampora groans, and slinks over to join her. "Stop manhandlin' the warmblood, Fef, she ain't here to be stared at."

"I'm  _shore_  she knew she was going to get plenty stared at, coming down here!  _Kanaya_  made this!"

Eridan rolls his eyes, and  _almost_  gives you a look of commiseration. Almost.

"She's a friend of mine, actually, I could...ask her to visit, at some point? I'm on vacation for a while, uh—"

Fef lets out a delighted trill, and you go  _fully_  red. Eridan snickers. Bastard.

"That would be amazing! Would you really? Oh, where are my manners—I'm Feferi Allera, this basshole's Eridan Ampora—" She hurries back to the counter, to grab the rope and the net you'd been commenting on. "We don't give discounts, but I can give you a sample to send her, dolphinately, and if she needs any adjustments or special orders—"

 

Feferi. You think you're in love.

Oh gods. This is going to be so, so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha how long has it been Oops

**Author's Note:**

> ;) ;) ;) MORE TO COME


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